Film Review

04 December 2008 04:57 BST

Death Race

Directed by Paul WS Anderson, out September 26th in cinemas, starring Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane, Joan Allen, 104 mins.

In a nutshell...

Poor re-release of 1970s B-movie

What's it all about?

The year is 2012, the US economy has collapsed, prisons have been privatised and there's a whole new, more deadly, style of reality entertainment on the internet. A show called Death Race sees prisoners on Terminal Island compete in an extreme racing competition where literally anything goes. The aim of the game is to stay alive as the souped-up cars, fitted with all manner of weapons, hurtle round the makeshift track attempting to destroy one another. The rules are simple - win five races and you win your freedom.

Jensen Ames (Statham) loses his job and then finds himself framed for the murder of his wife. Upon arrival at Terminal Island, the dominating prison warden Hennessey (Allen) provides Jensen with an opportunity to walk free. Her most popular racer, the mysterious Frankenstein - who hides behind a mask, died in his last race, one short of the illusive five victories.

Hennessey provides Jensen with an ultimatum – race as Frankenstein or never see his daughter again. He only needs to win one more race to escape prison; the problem is there are a whole lot of people out there trying to stop him.



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Who's in it?

Statham has carved out a nice little niche for himself as the buff British hard-man. After his breakthrough in Guy Ritche's Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Statham has gone on to star alongside Brad Pitt in Snatch and Jet Li in The One and War. In 2002 Luc Besson cast him as Frank Martin in the Transporter, the sequel of which topped the US box office and a third instalment is due out later this year.

Tyrese Gibson is probably better known for his modelling and singing. He has appeared in a number of recent films including, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Transformers and a quick cameo in Zoolander.

British-born director Paul W.S. Anderson has delivered a real mixed bag of films in his career thus far. There have been some promising offers but also, some absolute stinkers. Event Horizon was a truly terrifying horror film and the original Resident Evil movies were more than palpable. An ill-advised franchise collaboration with AVP Alien vs. Predator, however, has led to widespread criticism and caused considerable damage to his reputation as director.

As an example...

"The audience wants to see Frank again. He moves them. Inspires them. And in this world that's not easy to come by." - Hennessey
"What makes you think for a second I would risk my life doing this for you?" - Jensen Ames
"Win five races, you go free. Those are the rules, and Frank has won four. Win one more, you walk. Call it intuition, but I don't think you belong in here with the rest of these animals." - Hennessey
"I might surprise you." - Jensen Ames

"You want me to kill Frankenstein?" - Ulrich
"Don't be stupid. Frankenstein can't die. After all, he's just a mask." - Hennessey

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars?

Absolutely none. There is no chance of this film picking up any kind of award, not matter how small.

What the others say

"As hard as metal and just as dumb, Paul WS Anderson's Death Race couldn't be further from producer Roger Corman and director Paul Bartel's goofy, bloody 1975 original, Death Race 2000. Basically a souped-up gladiatorial battle on a racetrack inside what's supposedly future America's toughest high-security prison, the pic maintains 2000's body count and a few character names, and dumps the rest - including the humour." - Variety

So is it any good?

Here's the thing – when people see that Jason Statham and Paul WS Anderson have collaborated on a new film, most will probably react with a considerable amount of pessimism. However, some may get drawn into the fact that it's a remake of a more-than-acceptable 1970's B-movie about cars with massive guns shooting at each other in a futuristic prison. They may think: "This could have potential, this could be pretty good - right?"

Wrong. Death Race is as bad as it looks on the tin, in fact it's probably worse. Anderson's script is bad, real bad, the dialogue is stinking and when delivered by our not-so-exciting hero, it's cringeworthy. To give Statham his credit, he has clearly spent a lot of time in the gym getting super buff and he was clearly more than accommodating to the director's requests for him to take his shirt off at every given moment. If only some of that time spent pumping iron had been spent working on an American accent his performance wouldn't be quite so one-dimensional and flat as it is here. The fact that he spends some of the film sat in a car with a mask on is perhaps an indication of a potential lack of range on the Englishman's behalf.

The rest of the cast provide so much ammunition for criticism it's impossible to list it all here. Allen and McShane, for example, are clearly only onboard for their pay check, both acting well beneath themselves in roles you would have hoped they would have been ashamed to take. As for Gibson, well, he too deserves credit for his time in the gym, but perhaps he should spend more time catching the attention of the prime minister's wife than progressing with a career in acting.

Obviously, this is a film about guns and cars, so what do we need? A smoking hot girl in hot pants and low-cut vest top of course. Step forward Natalie Martinez, whose character Case does little more than a poor Megan Fox impersonation in Transformers. Her performance isn't that bad, it's just how unimaginative and excruciatingly stereotypical her role is

The film is so predictable it's painful, you can see every plot development a mile off. From the opening scene you know exactly where Jenson is going to end up. From the first unoriginal new-boy-gets-a-beating-in-prison scene it's obvious he's going to end up behind the wheel and so on and so on.

The action scenes are OK, but should have been mush more over the top. Yes this is supposed to be a re-make of a B-movie and mega bucks budgets probably weren't available but the race scenes don't have the punch you really want them to deliver and they end up coming across a little flat. Plus, if you're going to introduce a high-speed lorry chase into your movie, don't, for the love of God, have the thing flip 180 degrees in slow motion. It only draws comparisons to The Dark Knight, and that is no good place for a Statham/Anderson collaboration to be.

Death Race is poor. The acting is poor, the dialogue is shameful, the action disappoints and the ending is so disappointing you'll wish you just stayed at home.

4/10

Richard James